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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24985030">On Down the Line</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuka_After_Dark/pseuds/Nuka_After_Dark'>Nuka_After_Dark</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fallout 4 Ficlets, Drabbles, and One-shots [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blind Betrayal spoilers, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Post-Blind Betrayal, self reflection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:21:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24985030</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuka_After_Dark/pseuds/Nuka_After_Dark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Danse always takes a few minutes before bed to talk to his sleeping son, but this time he has something very important to say.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Paladin Danse/Female Sole Survivor, Paladin Danse/Sole Survivor (Fallout)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fallout 4 Ficlets, Drabbles, and One-shots [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>On Down the Line</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I told you you were going to make a great father,” Nora cooed as she wrapped an arm around Danse’s waist and held him close. “Although I have to admit I might be getting a little jealous. I only carried him for nine months before pushing him out and yet he seems to only ever want Daddy.”</p>
<p>Danse didn’t say anything as he watched the toddlers chest rise and fall with even breaths, his large brown eyes twitching behind their lids as he dreamed. Instead he simply allowed himself to be held and to watch what he considered to be one of his greatest blessings.</p>
<p>“I still can’t believe it,” Danse whispered, keeping his voice low to avoid waking the child.</p>
<p>“Well you better start, big guy.” Nora gave his waist an extra squeeze before sliding her arm off him, her bare feet tapping the unfinished wood floor softly as she began to move from the room. She paused in the doorway and looked back at him, her head tipping to one side thoughtfully. “Are you coming, Danse?”</p>
<p>“In a moment,” he answered, still staring at the sleeping babe’s face.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Nora said with a chuckle. “If you wake him up, you get to tell him the story of the ‘The New Squirrel’ over and over until he falls asleep again.”</p>
<p>Danse listened as she padded off toward their bedroom down the hall of their make-shift shack, waiting until he heard the bed creaking as she got on it to kneel beside the toddler in the cot to whisper to him as he did every night when he was alone with him.</p>
<p>“No matter what you turn out to be, son, Daddy will always be so proud of you.” He tentatively raised one large hand to soothe the mop of dark hair away from the chubby face, holding his breath as the babe whimpered then smiled in his sleep. “Someone told Daddy once that he was a monster, and Daddy believed him until Mommy told him you were going to be coming into this world soon. And when Daddy realized how much he already loved you he realized he wasn’t a monster. Monster’s cannot feel love, son. They cannot feel fear, either. And Daddy does feel love and every time you do something dangerous, Daddy feels fear, too. Daddy knows he’s not a monster now.”</p>
<p>“Danse?”</p>
<p>He froze, still kneeling beside the cot unsure of how long Nora had been there and how much she had heard. He hadn’t even heard her leaving the bed, yet there she was, wearing one of his tee-shirts as a nightgown and a soft smile on her lips. He stood slowly, taking care not to disturb the slumbering toddler.</p>
<p>“I didn’t hear you approach,” he admitted.</p>
<p>“Yeah, well, I heard everything you told him. I would have thought you were over it by now.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think I will ever truly be over it. I just learn to live with it. Live with the fact that I am not the man I thought I was. The solider I believed myself to be.”</p>
<p>“No,” Nora agreed, taking quick and quiet steps into the room, reaching up to cup his face and turn it back to hers. “No, you might not be the man you thought you were but you are still the man I fell in love with, and you are the man that that little boy is going to grow up absolutely idolizing. Don’t fall back, Danse. Please. Stay with me in the here, in the now.”</p>
<p>“I will,” Danse promised, reaching up to place his hands on hers as she still held his head in place. “If not for myself then for you. And for him. I meant what I said, you know. About knowing I am not an abomination. They would never feel the love I feel for you and Cutler, and they would never understand the fear I have every day of losing you both everyday.”</p>
<p>“We’re not going anywhere,” Nora promised.</p>
<p>And in that moment it was easy to believe her, just as he had believed her four years before when she assured him he was not an abomination. After all, she had yet to lead him wrong.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Make sure to check out my Tumblr, nuka-after-dark to see more of my works not posted here or to request a work of your own!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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